So I got the CE IFS in my car this past weekend to see how everything fit, it is all in loose because I have to take it apart again but I noticed my springs looked really bowed out. I did not install the shocks though. Do they act as a stopper to hold the coil springs from decompressing too far? It kind of just looks like the coils are too long? It has no weight on the front right now. I will try to get some pictures of it tomorrow evening. Any thoughts???

Once you put some weight on the front end, the spring pockets will align and the bow in the springs will go away. The shock should not act as a bumpstop either for droop or compression, and the lower control arm should be parallel to the ground with the full weight on the car. The CE top spring pockets should have adjusters to allow for a small amount of ride height adjustment.

I think you're coming along just fine. Once you get it all together, then take another look at it and see what the springs look like.

Many times the springs will need to be cut, if the car sits too high AFTER you have everything installed, you can trim a coil or 2. The bow may go away when the LCAs are level and at ride height, but the stock spring in a stock MII has some bow to it.
The shocks do act as a lower limiting device on most every aftermarket MII I have installed. The stock MII setup has a droop limiting bumper on the UCA, which contacts the spring perch, and nothing that I know of for compression other than coil bind..

Actually a stock Mustang shock has a compression bumper on the shock shaft to limit compression. And the shock length is less than the spring drop, so it holds the spring partially compressed all the time.

Ok thanks for the help, I was a little curious about cutting the springs because the instructions that came with the kit said the springs should be 12'' in height and CE springs do not need to be cut but other brands may need to. I guess it probably should sit high up with no weight on it.

Don't cut anything until you have all the weight on it that is going to be on it and it sits for a while. You can not judge the final ride height without the full weight. And the springs will "settle" during the first couple of weeks.

And yes, the stock Mustang II used the shocks as compression bump stops. They had a metal cup and a larger lower bushing. I think the idea is that hot rodders will probably be more careful on bumpy roads than the average driver Ford had to design for.

The Factory had 11 different springs, for different combinations of vehicle and engine and options. I long ago lost the factory engineering data sheet I had. It showed static height and spring rate and final ride height. The guys that raced the pinto mini stock classes use to do a lot of suspension mix and match.

It looks good to me. The frame of your car is really light in the front, and the crossmember really doesn't add all that much weight. Once you start dropping in the engine, transmission, and all the front sheetmetal, the suspension will settle in. You'll want to use the jackscrews (the top coil spring mounts) to set your ride height. Ideally, you'll have the lower control arm parallel to the ground for the best handling and ride quality.

It does look, in the second pic, that your lower control arm hardware isn't installed completely. It looks like the two fasteners outboard of the lower end of the coil spring are not fully pressed into the hole. Did you do this as part of your mockup? Just asking questions for when I get around to getting my front MII suspension for my '48 Chevy.

Ya I just left the strut rod to control arm bolts loose also. Some of the nuts were nyloc so I didnt want to waste them on the mock up. Anybody know if there is supposed to be a larger spacer that goes on the ball joint threads? The directions diagram looked like it took a thicker spacer. All I could find were the flat washers which I have installed in the pics.

If the cotter pin is fully engaged in the slots of the castellated nut once it is tightened to proper torque specifications, then the washer is thick enough. If the cotter pin is exposed to half or more of its diameter, you need a thicker washer.

When your torque the nut, does the cotter pin hole line up with the castellations? If everything lines up, then you don't have room for any spacer, regardless what the directions say.

I didn't particularly care for the lack of detail in the CE crossmember installation instructions. I would have liked to have had specific instructions as far as where to put bolts, washers, nuts, torque specs, that kind of thing. As it was, it didn't take too awful long to get the crossmember installed, but it could have gone more quickly.

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